Family Entertainment Centers

	Amusement parks, educational centers, and picnics on the beach are the ideal places for family oriented activities to occur. Traditional family activities also included having dinner with the family every night, but in today’s society things are different. A typical family unit today are mostly single parents with their children and or other children, adopted from the neighborhood or from family relatives. These families do have their own family entertainment centers. They are probably the radio, TV, and the Internet.
	Although families view these FEC’s as non family oriented, they do bring in the components of any FEC. When radio became the medium of the time, families use to gather around the box and listen to political speeches, comic acts, and even our daily soap operas. The interactivity in this activity was brilliantly concocted by the people who created the medium. It allow for people to use their imagination and imagine the action and or drama being heard on the radio. It was like an amusement park right in your living room. Though it had it’s limits, which was visuals.
	The limit of visuals in radio gave way to television, a new medium that sweep the country stealing all of radio‘s good talent and ideas. Despite the fact that TV stole every idea from radio, TV gave sound and picture a new twist. They represent a storyline where people, like families who gather around the dinner table and watch some TV, enjoy the idea of interacting with the events on the screen. People would get attach to the character on TV which will make them laugh, cry, and shout at the TV. It builds a whole box of emotions and brings about interesting topics.

	There was sound and there were pictures, what more could you ask for. They did it again with the Internet. This new media takes the old media and puts it together. It’s like a story within story. It has the weather, news, and even mini shows. As a participant of this strange but true FEC, families become close together even though they are far away. It’s like the slogan for AT&T, “Reach out and touch someone.” This grabs anyone’s attention even today. The Internet is a new dimensions of domains with cybernetic information that is distributed world wide. It’s the new interactive screen in every families home.
	As the Family Entertainment Centers come to a close, their hybrid are still keeping the families close in as many ways as they can. These centers allow families to enjoy time with each other, but with trips to Europe and Cancun for the kids, family vacations are off the menu. It’s hard realize in the type of world that families live in today and how they share their time together. Friday night dinners will always stay the same for most of the families but other things are in mind. The media revolves around people, so all we should do is sit, relax and enjoy the show.